The article reports three experiments conducted to determine whether
musicians possess better ability of recognising the sources of natural
sounds than non-musicians. The study was inspired by reports which
indicate that musical training develops not only musical hearing, but
also enhances various non-musical auditory capabilities. Recognition and
detection thresholds were measured for recordings of environmental
sounds presented in quiet (Experiment 1) and in the background of a
noise masker (Experiment 2). The listener’s ability of sound source
recognition was inferred from the recognition-detection threshold gap
(RDTG) defined as the difference in signal level between the thresholds
of sound recognition and sound detection. Contrary to what was expected
from reports of enhanced auditory abilities of musicians, the RDTGs were
not smaller for musicians than for non-musicians. In Experiment 3,
detection thresholds were measured with an adaptive procedure comprising
three interleaved stimulus tracks with different sounds. It was found
that the threshold elevation caused by stimulus interleaving was similar
for musicians and non-musicians. The lack of superiority of musicians
over non-musicians in the auditory tasks explored in this study is
explained in terms of a listening strategy known as casual listening
mode, which is a basis for auditory orientation in the environment.